Help me beat my DM :)

[Nail]

Basically what I'm saying ..... is that gameplay really suffers with some of these combos. I believe that certain spells etc need to be revised or dropped in the interest of playability ...

And most of us would agree with the spirirt, if not th' letter, of your statement. Perhaps you could've started your first response off like that, rather than with "refuse to even acknowledge".

Actually, concider trying one (or more) of these maximized, twinked, munchkinish one-shots for yourself. They really bring out the problem areas in the game. Many of which I'd bet you haven't thought of....yet. Since all parties know this is "just for fun" and "to push th' envelope", there won't be the kind of hard feelings there would be in a fully developed campiagn.

After all, wouldn't it just suck if your main evil villian dragon was taken out in one round by a quickened Haste, normal Harm, and Inflict Serious Wounds combo? Gonna rule "that can't happen, 'cause it's broken" after th' fact?

It keeps the arguements away from people's cherished PCs and NPCs. ...And that's a Good Thing (tm).

 

[Nail]

Still not sure about magical items. I think I'm going for the sorcerer 17/paladin 1 combo. For insane saves and Timestop/Gates. I also need some ideas for spells that will prevent the dragon from ripping me to pieces after the Time-stop ends and before my army of solars will kill it.

Sor 17 doesn't have 9th level spells. It'll have to be scrolls, bucko.

(EDIT)
Magic Items: Look at Cube of Force, specifically the one that keeps out living things. No claws, jaws, wings, tails, etc.

Scrolls of Mordenkainen's Disjunction are necessary. Also Maze, to give you those breaks yer gonna need. You may also want (as I mentioned previously) a scroll or two of Wish (unless you've got that Cleric cohort, then let him have scrolls of miracle).

Your solars can go down fast if the DM prepares for it. Banishment, Dismissal, Mord's Disj., etc. Don't count on your solars. Really, they're just a distraction so you can get close enough for a Harm/inflict combo from your cleric, or a True strike/Disintegrate combo from you. Of course, their Miracles to help you max your SR spell caster check roll ain't bad either.

BTW, if you use the Miracle (etc.) to affect the dragon, his SR counts and he may get a save. So don't bother; use the wish to boost yourself. +20 on th' check, or whatever.

You may even concider having a cohort's cohort whose sole job is to read scrolls of Mord's Disjunction on the dragon. The cohort won't be high enough level to cast 9th level spells of his own (just have a good spellcraft).

 

[Nail]

Wow, I can't believe I almost forgot this. Old age, I guess.

Gate in your very own Half-celestial Very Old Gold Dragon!

What's good for th' goose......well, in this case the DM's goose is cooked.

 

[LGodamus]

I would like to add my .02 on the time stop thing. The way I run the spell goes like this.....it says your spells cannot affect anything during the time stop and other spells duration starts when time stop ends.....so, the only spells that you can cast on another must have a duration of more than instantaneous......or they are wasted...before you go screaming at me hold on, time stop never says it stops time ...it speeds you up so you can cast spells more quickly....so in that respect time is still passing so a duration of instantaneous goes by during the period when you cannot harm anything.....the reason the spells says that spells will start when time stop ends is because the time used isn't substantial enough to take away any rounds of duration, but the time used is obviously longer than instant. ok flame away.

 

[jmucchiello]

I think the dragon would have to be designed with all of this in mind. It's not unreasonable to give the dragon a ring of counterspell (harm), contingency (time stop), protection from good to stop the gated solars from even touching him, Disjunction? Change the contingency so that any 9th level spell cast in the dragon's presence teleports him away.

Oh, and I wouldn't allow a cohort to take the leadership feat.

 

[Nail]

.....Disjunction? Change the contingency so that any 9th level spell cast in the dragon's presence teleports him away.

Good idea...but it might be too broad? ....dunno.

If this sort of thing happens, you just end the one-shot and say, "I win! Next!"

Here's part of the Contingency spell description from th' SRD:

The conditions needed to bring the spell into effect must be clear, although they can be general. In all cases, the contingency immediately brings into effect the second spell, the latter being "cast" instantaneously when the prescribed circumstances occur. Note that if complicated or convoluted conditions are prescribed, the whole spell combination (contingency and the companion magic) may fail when called on. The companion spell occurs based solely on the stated conditions, regardless of whether the character wants it to.

You might argue that the 9th level spell needed to be cast before your (very clever, BTW) suggested contingency went off. Meaning, of course, that it would be disjuncted before it could go off.

....and much arguement over these niggling little details would ensue.

Oh, and I wouldn't allow a cohort to take the leadership feat.

Well....sure, and we could not allow the NPC to breathe either (Rule 0!)...but where's th' fun in that?

 

[Zappo]

Ok, now I need to know something more about the timing of contingency. Can such a contingency go off before the spell is actually cast?

BTW, if cohorts are allowed, then I would have a chain of cohorts, each of which enacts a different smackdown.

 

[Vuron]

Contingency has an instantaneous effect, which even a quickened spell is slower than IMHO as a quickened spell can still be counterspelled.

If you want to use WotC's own terminology a quickened spell would be an instant while the contingency is an interrupt

 

[Zappo]

If you want to use WotC's own terminology a quickened spell would be an instant while the contingency is an interrupt

LOL!
I've got to remember this contingency vs. 9th level spells. It can be annoying at times, but it can definitely save one's behind.

Now, can you have a contingency react to something that can't be easily ascertained - ie, whether someone is casting a 9th level spell, before the spell goes off?

 

[Vuron]

I would seriously doubt it as the contingency spell itself doesn't really have any innate intelligence. IMC I would allow contingency, chain contingency and E's Evasion to react to obvious environmental changes. For instance I would suggest that someone casting Time Stop is in effect gathering and wrinkling chronal energies which would be ascertainable during the casting process even when quickened (and anyway quickened timestop is just plain gross anyway ). In a sense I'm giving the spell the innate ability to detect magic (fairly reasonable IMHO) but not neccesarily to detect intent etc.

Now if you were to design a spell that combines contingency with various detection abilities I would allow it. Of course the cool thing would be some epic spell that combines the effects of contingency, foresight, and some area effect spell as you teleport out